Investors Win Auction For Bankrupt Spanish Airport

A group of international investors won the auction for Spain's Ciudad Real airport with a EUR€10,000 (USD$10,900) offer, two people familiar with the matter said.

The group was the only bidder for a complex that cost more than EUR€1 billion during the country's boom years.

The group of investors, Tzaneen International, said in a statement it intended to invest up to EUR€100 million in developing the airport to make it a main entry point for Chinese companies to Europe.

Tzaneen's offer was far below the EUR€40 million base valuation of the airport, which one of the people said meant any other bidder could step forward with an offer of at least EUR€28 million in the next 20 working days.

The person could not say whether the airport would automatically go to Tzaneen if no other bidder came forward.

The airport in central Spain, which has a capacity of 2.5 million passengers per year, was built in 2008 to provide an alternative to Madrid's Barajas airport but it went bankrupt in 2010 and closed two years later.

It is one of a handful of ghost airports built during Spain's construction boom that has failed to attract significant numbers of passengers. Castellon airport in eastern Spain was inaugurated in 2011 but has not received a single flight.